200 reptilia: LACERTILIA. — XXIX. 



Thou whose fame 

 Searchest the grass with tongue of flame, 

 Making all creatures seem thy game, 

 When the whole woods before thee run, 

 Asked but — when all is said and done — 

 To lie, untrodden, in the sun ! " — Bret Haete. 



Order XXIX. LACERTILIA. (The Lizards.) 



Reptiles not shielded, with the body usually covered with over- 

 lapping scales: mouth not dilatable ; tongue free; jaws always with 

 tooth. Limbs 4, distinct, rarely rudimentary and hidden by the 

 skin ; shoulder girdle developed. Feet usually with 5 digits, the 

 phalanges normally 2, 3, 4, 5, 3, or 4. Tail usually long and in 

 many cases very brittle, readily broken by a slight blow; this is 

 owing to a thin, unossified, transverse septum, which traverses 

 each vertebra. "The vertebra naturally breaks with great readi- 

 ness through the plane of the septum, and when such lizards are 

 seized by the tail, that appendage is pretty certain to part at one 

 of these weak points." {Huxley.) Vent a cross slit ; quadrate bone 

 articulated to the skull. The great majority of the numerous species 

 belong to tropical and sub-tropical regions. The few found within 

 our limits give but a slight idea of the whole great group. (Lat., 

 lacerta, lizard.) 



Families of Lacertilia. 



a. Tongue covered with imbricate, scale-like papilla} or with oblique plicae ; 



clavicle dilated proximally, often loop-shaped. 



b. Premaxillary double-, temporal fossae roofed over by bone; sternal fon- 



tanelle usually wanting; (tongue not deeply bind). . Scincid.e, 113. 



bb. Premaxillary single; temporal fossa? not roofed; sternal fontanelle 



present; (tongue deeply bifid) Teid.e, 114. 



aa. Tongue smooth or with villous papillae; clavicle not dilated proximally. 

 c. Temporal fossae roofed over by bone; tongue sheathed at tip; body 

 with osteodermal plates; (limbs obsolete in our species). 



Anguid.e, 115. 

 cc. Temporal fossae not roofed over; tongue thick; (limbs present). 



IguanidjE, 116. 



Family CXIIL SCINCID-ffi. (The Skinks.) 



Head regularly shielded ; scales smooth, underlaid by bony plates; 

 body fusiform or subcylindrical ; nasal plate single, ungrooved, the 

 nostril in the centre; limbs present; toes compressed, 5-5 ; head 

 usually without posterior vertical plate. Genera about 60; species 

 200; in most parts of the world. 



a. Palate with teeth ; two supranasal plates; ear large; its front edge dentate ; 



lower eye-lid scaly Eumeces, 293. 



aa. Palate toothless; no supranasal plates; ear very large, circular, exposed ; 



lower eye-lid with a transparent disk OLIGOSOMA, 294. 



